Process Improvement 2015

Graeme Knowles

Warwick Manufacturing Group

Process Improvement

Process Improvement: The Need

“No matter how good you are, how well regarded

your products and/or services are, you cannot

stop improving. You cannot stand still.

When you do, you really aren’t standing still, you

are slipping backward because your competition

is constantly improving.

The very best have to run to stay the very best,

because if you are not improving, there is only

one direction you can go, and that’s down.”H. James Harrington, 1991

Get better or get beaten

• 1956

BSA

Matchless

Norton

Triumph

Royal Enfield

1986

Honda

Kawasaki

Suzuki

Yamaha

Process Improvement

Improvement Grid

Process Improvement

What to Improve?

There are essentially 3 things which can be improved:

• Quality of process output

• Speed of performing the process

• Cost of performing the process

Contrary to popular belief, these are not mutually exclusive

Process Improvement

How to Improve?

• Key Focus:Variation

ImproveQuality

• Key Focus:Waste

IncreaseSpeed

• Outcome ofprevious two

ReduceCost

Process Improvement

The 7 Wastes

• Correction• Time and materials to correct defect

• Over-production• Producing more than required, or early. JIT.

• Processing• Does not improve quality or advance production

• Conveyance• Unnecessary moving about of parts / components

• Inventory• Holding costs, hidden defects, obsolete stock

• Motion• Excessive / unnecessary walking

• Waiting• Idle between jobs

Process Improvement

Realisation of benefits

0.6

0.90.7

0.4

0.8

0.4

0.85 0.85 0.85 0.85

Present condition

Redistribution

Even distribution

Process Improvement

Process Improvement

Key #1: Process Focus

• Good results happen through effective processes

• Simply rewarding results leads to gaming

• Sustainability comes from understanding how resultswere achieved

Process Improvement

Key #2: Choose YourApproach

• Kaizen• Small-scale changes - evolutionary

• Incremental change

• Starting from where you are now

• Involving everyone

• Never ending

• Step Change• Revolutionary

• ‘Blue skies’ thinking

• Team based (often multi-functional)

Process Improvement

Step Change or ‘Kaizen’?

Step Change– Expensive

– Large improvement

– Takes time

– Ability to start afresh

– Technology / System focus

– Project team

– Profit focus

– Specific

– Often non-transferable

– Good for fast growth economy

– High Profile

Kaizen– Low cost

– Small Improvement

– Quick

– Improve what’s there

– People focus

– Everyone as individuals orteams

– Focus on means to ends

– Ongoing

– Transferable

– Good for slow growtheconomy

– Low Profile

Process Improvement

Step Change and ‘Kaizen’

Performance

Time

Actual standard

Target standard

Step change without maintenance of standard

Performance

TimeStep change with Kaizen

New standard

Innovation

Innovation

Imai (1990)

Process Improvement

Expert-led or Involve Everyone?

Expert Led– Six Sigma

– Business Process Re-engineering

– Quality Improvement Teams

Involve Everyone– Kaizen

– Lean

– Quality Circles

Process Improvement

Key#3: Change Process

Define

Measure

Analyse

Improve

Control

ProcessCustomer requirementsOpportunityLikely benefitsPossible contributors

Current PerformanceSources of Variability

Key VariablesRelationships

Implemented solutionPredicted & tested results

Key variables controlledPlan for stabilityTraining plan

Standardise across shiftsApply to other processesEvaluate the improvementprocess

Measure of benefits achievedRecord of the process

Process Improvement

Key #4: Environment

• Explain why as well as how

• Ensure people feel safe to challengeand engage

• Train, train, train

• Empower people as much aspossible

Empowerment“ Your firms are built on the Taylor model; with your bosses doing the thinking

while the workers wield the screwdrivers, you are convinced deep down that

this is the right way to run a business. For you, the essence of management

is about getting the ideas out of the heads of the bosses and into the hands

of the labour.

We are beyond the Taylor model; business we know, is so complex and

difficult that continued existence depends on the day-to-day mobilisation of

every ounce of intelligence. For us, the core of management is precisely the

art of mobilising and pulling together the intellectual resources of all

employees in the service of the firm.” M Konosuke Matsushita (1979)

Process Improvement

Key #4: Environment

• Explain why as well as how

• Ensure people feel safe to challengeand engage

• Train, train, train

• Empower people as much aspossible

• Respond to the levels of commitment

Process Improvement

Commitment

• Top down and bottomup

• If you’re not part ofthe solution you’repart of the problem

• Commitment is activenot passive

• Resources (especiallytime) are the currencyof commitment

Conclusions

• Businesses need both step changeand ‘Kaizen’ to win

• Process improvement is not simply askill, it is a way of life requiring acultural change

• Process improvement needs to bemanaged to work to the full

• Process improvement needscommitment to work to the full